Effects of the substrate temperature in AuN thin films by means of X-ray diffraction

Gold is used in electronic industry like electric conductor for products such as computers, mobiles phones, etc; with the drawback that it is one of the most expensive metals in the market. Gold Nitride is a new material, having excellent physics properties like high hardness, high melting point, high electric conductivity, chemical inertia and good thermodynamic stabily among others. At the moment its study is more about electronics, optics, mechanical properties and growth of the films. AuN thin films were produced by the PAPVD (Plasma assisted Physics Vapor Deposition) method, using the pulsed are technique in a mono-vaporizer system. These films were created with an Au target of 99% purity and deposited on stainless steel 304. It was observed that heating the substrate produces small stoichiometric changes in the film, which makes small changes in the diffraction patterns to appear, like widening in the Au orientation, since the composicional gradient is varying according to the substrate temperature. Au 4f and N1s narrow spectra were analyzed using XPS (X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), in order to observe stoichiometry in the films.